Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

Hamels Hopes to Start Tuesday

Cole Hamels has every intention of pitching Tuesday in Florida.

But that is far from a sure thing.

Hamels had his visibly swollen and bruised right hand bandaged this morning at Rogers Centre, where the Phillies opened a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Boston Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez hit a line drive off the heel of Hamels’ hand yesterday at Citizens Bank Park. He eventually left the game. X-rays were negative.

Hamels is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Saturday.

“I want to pitch as much as I possibly can,” Hamels said. “I think it all depends on just being able to throw a bullpen and just being able to get out there. From what the trainer said it’s not as swollen as they assumed it would be. I’ll just try to keep the swelling down as much as possible. … It bruised up right away. It bruised all the way to the other side.”

Hamels said while he might want to pitch, the Phillies will ultimately make the decision.

“They know. They’ve seen this before,” he said. “But I’m not the type of guy that will ever shy away from wanting to play.”

Terrific win pherris, but I wouldn’t call KK’s day a ‘good job’. They gave him a lead in the 7th and he threw up all over himself.
Bastardo is the real deal. The kid is unflappable. Maybe when Madson gets back he goes back to the eighth inning?

Dear phans, lets have a test and find out if you guys have a brain between you. Which starting pitcher leads the NL in wins AND in ERA? Let me know I cant find the answer. Judging from all the hype about your overated rotation it must be a phillie I suppose. Let me know anyway. Good luck this weekend.

Pherris, you really can’t be serious. You have more posts over there than you do here.
But the bottom line is that only stupid people troll on sites of teams that are way ahead of them. I guess they are content to be in the wild card race.

It looks like some of my Braves friends have already visitied the Phillies website. I will try to be kind as Philly fans scare me a bit. Poor Donovan McNabb, Mitch Williams. It is true there is a statue of Joe Carter at the band box the Phillies play in? Funny how those fly balls to LF that exit the park probably give Howard 5 extra HRs a year and cost the Phills $5 million in annual salary. I guess it is worth it. You guys interested in Dan Uggs if Chase goes down? He has become the Jeff Franceour of 2011, Honestly, the Phillies and Braves rotation are basically a wash, the Phills have more offense and the Braves have a better bullpen. I still have hopes for the Braves underperformers to join the party, but the season is half over. Cummon Heyward and Uggs and Gonzo and even Chipper (yeah, he can do better) Looking the get Prado back to even the playing field a bit. Second half is going to be interesting. The best 2 teams in BB may both be in the NL east. Has anybody thought if the Mets would dare trade Reyes to the Braves??? Can you imagine.

Sorry dude, but the starting pitching isn’t even close to a wash. The Phillies have four starters with a 2.66 or below ERA and 11 complete games between them. That doesn’t even include Roy Oswalt, who will be back in late July and has been a killer down the stretch his whole career.
Seriously, the Braves have a very good team, but you clowns have to stop being homers. And I think it’s funny that you bring up Joe Carter, who beat the one-year- wonder ’93 Phillies in the WS the same year that they buried the vaunted Braves in the NLCS. Of course, that wasn’t anything unusual. Everybody beat those Braves in the postseason.

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